Continuing strike leaves Kitsap road projects on hold

Traffic runs along the work project on Silverdale Way in Old Town as Operating engineers from Local 302 are striking, suspending the Silverdale Way project, on Thursday, August 23, 2018.(Photo: Larry Steagall / Kitsap Sun)Buy Photo

A union that has been on strike for nearly three weeks has signed a master labor agreement with several contractors, allowing some construction projects around the Puget Sound to resume.

But several high-profile road projects in Kitsap County are still on hold, and officials are worried the stoppage could affect work schedules with colder weather on the horizon.

Members of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302 -- which represents heavy equipment operators, mechanics, pavers, surveyors and stationary engineers -- have been on strike since Aug. 21.

Local 302 has been negotiating with Associated General Contractors of Washington since the last contract expired in May. The sides have reached an agreement twice, but both tentative contracts were rejected by workers.

The two sides have made "negligible" progress on a new agreement, union business manager Daren Konopaski said in a statement posted on the union's website this week. On Thursday, Local 302 posted a list of the contractors that have signed individual agreements with the union.

One of those contractors, Interwest Construction Inc., was slated to start work on Kitsap Transit’s Wheaton Way Transit Center on Aug. 20. Workers were back on the job Wednesday, Interwest owner and president Eben Twaddle said.

The transit center is an exception in Kitsap, where other major projects remain in limbo.

The delays put pressure on other road projects, which had been scheduled to finish work before the onset of poor weather.

The Tremont Gateway Project, a $21 million road-widening effort in a heavily-trafficked part of Port Orchard, could take up three months longer to finish because of the delays, city public works director Mark Dorsey said.

Contractors were just beginning to install curbs and gutters when the strike began, and still have to complete underground water main work between Pottery Avenue and Port Orchard Boulevard. The city also planned to install a base level of pavement on Tremont between South Kitsap and Port Orchard boulevards.

“If the strike continues, we're going to get into conditions that aren't going to allow us to do that work,” Dorsey said.

Officials are also worried that the backlog of paving work around the region could cause a ripple effect after the strike ends. A change in oil prices and high demand for paving contractors could bump the cost of asphalt and cause further delays, Dorsey said.

County planners have similar concerns about a road-widening project on Silverdale Way. The project was initially supposed to be finished in October, but now has been pushed back an undetermined amount of time, senior program manager Tina Nelson said.

Paving on the project was supposed to start several weeks ago. Paving in the rain can prevent the asphalt from bonding correctly and cause cracks or holes to form.

“It’s a large expense, we want to make sure that we get a good product, and you don't pave if it's raining and it's too cold,” Nelson said.

Workers on Bainbridge Island were set to begin widening shoulders on two roads Aug. 20. Chris Munter, an engineer with the city, said the strike hasn’t especially affected the project, but he would like to finish before the weather sours.

“I was hoping to get it mostly done before school even started,” Munter said.

The project, which will add five-foot paved shoulders on Miller Road from Tolo Road to Peterson Hill Road and on Fletcher Bay Road from High School Road to New Brooklyn Road, had an initial timeline of 50 days. Contractor Titan Earthwork estimated the project could be delayed up to a month, Munter said.

As the strike nears its third week, Local 302 is continuing to reach out to contractors and sign them to a master labor agreement, according to a statement on the union’s website.

A representative for the union did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. Konopaski said via the union's website that the union "will not distract from the negotiation process by litigating its positions in the media."

Doug Peterson, director of labor relations for Associated General Contractors, said that the two sides were still negotiating on Thursday, but “we’ve got a way to go.”

“We are negotiating right now with the operators, we're hopefully we can get some resolution today, I really don't want to go beyond that,” Peterson said.